This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

The spectre was raised last week when a pest control company reported that an army of rats fleeing construction at Union Station was invading downtown homes and businesses.

The company, which does not service Union Station, made its declaration after receiving “a lot more calls” from area residents and business owners.

But TTC spokesman Brad Ross said the agency hasn’t noticed any more rats than usual, and the city’s pest control contractor, Orkin, actually reported a “slight decrease” in the number of rats around Union Station, said city spokeswoman Tammy Robbinson.

Toronto is a big city packed with people, garbage and food, but apart from a few high-profile restaurant closures and rat-infested homes, residents have little to fear from their rodent neighbours, city officials say.

Article Continued Below

“Even squirrel bites are more common than rat bites,” said George Matsumura, head of the city’s rabies control program.

Apart from a few high-profile restaurant closures and rat-infested homes, Toronto residents have little to fear from their rodent neighbours, city officials say. (DREAMSTIME)

Matsumura said he could “probably count on one hand the number of rat bites we’ve had” since he started in the public health department in 1978.

Even if all of those rat attacks had happened in 2013, a person would still be more than twice as likely to be struck by lightning that year than bitten by a rat.

Toronto Public Health tracks dog, cat and raccoon bites and scratches, but not rats. They’re almost non-existent, Matsumura said, and are counted in the same category as mice and gerbil attacks: “other”.

It’s rare to see people enjoying a sunny day in High Park or Trinity-Bellwoods while throwing scraps of bread to rats, Matsumura noted, which is how most squirrel bites occur.

In 2014, four people reported squirrel bites and one reported being scratched. Last year, 10 people reported bites, and no scratches — 0.4 per cent of the 2,450 animal-human encounter injuries reported last year.

There have been no cases of rabies in Toronto in at least 35 years and no domestic animals carry the disease.

While Toronto does have rats, no one knows exactly how many.

“Typically, they don’t bother the public,” said city spokeswoman Jackie DeSouza. “They’re shy and stay out of sight.”

Rats have always lived around Union Station and near St. Lawrence Market, where they eat commercial garbage and take advantage of the many people who feed pigeons, Robbinson said.

Ross said the TTC tries to reduce the rodent population with poison and by clearing garbage and food — but hasn’t had to rely on rat sterilization as is the case in New York City.

Inside the transit system, there seem to be few rats near areas frequented by people, said Ross, who could not recall ever seeing a rat on a subway platform.

Mice, which generally do not carry the same cornucopia of disease as rats, are more common but still rare, Ross said.

That may mean that there are few rodents in the system or that they prefer to lurk out of sight, further down in the tunnels, he said.

Toronto Public Health deals with rodents in restaurants and other food establishments. From the beginning of 2013 until November 2014, it has closed five restaurants and bakeries because of rat infestations. Four were in the Kensington-Chinatown area.

Outside of food services and public transit, the city rarely gets involved in rat control.

In severe cases, which typically involve hoarding or abandoned properties, the city will intervene, Robbinson said.

The city doesn’t have any way to measure or track the rat population, DeSouza explained — and there may not be a practical way to do so.

Auerbach used records of 311 calls to estimate the number of properties infested with rats and their approximate population. He concluded there are probably two million rats in the city, one for every four New Yorkers.

In the paper, he suggests that the most accurate way to count a city’s rat population would be to tag and release a large number of rats, wait for them to spread into the wild population and then recapture a random sample.

The total population could then be extrapolated from the percentage of tagged rats found in that sample.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com